N-2-3-002.01 President's Message Dear Internauts: It is hard to believe that Autumn has returned to the northern hemisphere already. I have much to report on to you. Since I last wrote, the annual Internet Society INET conference was held in San Francisco. It was a conference of extraordinary character with representatives from over 90 countries. It is impossible to list all of the people who contributed to the success of this meeting, especially the nearly 900 who attended, so the comments that follow are necessarily limited. The general chairman, Eric Benhamou, led a superb conference committee. The program, organized by Barry Leiner and Bill Yundt, covered an enormous range of topics. Liz Barnhart did a superb job of organizing the on-site facilities, with able assistance from Janet Perry and David Ernst. The pre-conference workshop, organized by George Sadowsky, brought participants from nearly 70 countries, who met for a week at Stanford University and visited selected Internet equipment vendors around the San Francisco Bay Area. Many went on to attend INTEROP which followed INET93. The Board of Trustees met just before INET93 and the summary of actions taken has been put up on the ISOC gopher server (gopher on port 70). A search is on for a permanent executive director and Larry Landweber heads the search committee. ISOC will be moving to new quarters at the beginning of 1994 so as to permit growth of staff and service functions. A committee led by Mike Roberts is examining options for various classes of membership and mechanisms for helping local Internet Society interest groups to be formed, worldwide. Howard Funk, our acting executive director, has been making arrangements for a variety of special discounts for ISOC members, including various newsletter and journal subscriptions, discounts for membership dues in professional organizations with interests related to ISOC. Susan Estrada has been examining various possible new services that ISOC could offer, including variations on regular bakeoffs, training and perhaps certification programs. The latter topic was among several under discussion at the Internet Advisory Council meeting also held prior to INET93. Liaison arrangements with the ISO and ITU have been moving ahead. The former will be pursued through discussions with IAB, IESG, IETF and appropriate ISO bodies including SC6 and JTC1. The ITU arrangements now turn, in part, on whether ISOC is able to make the case that it should not have to defray operating costs of the ITU on the basis that ITU is not being asked to defray ISOC standards-making expenses. Many ISOC members are participating in NATO Advanced Studies Institute meetings in Budapest this October and it is anticipated that follow-on meetings on networking in the Former Soviet Union may take place in Moscow in the Spring of 1994. INET94 is shaping up under the capable direction of General Chairman Geoff Manning, Program Chairman Bernie Plattner and Local Arrangements Chairman Jan Gruntorad. RARE has been very helpful in organizing the combined Joint European Networking Conference and INET annual meeting. The Internet Society will finish the year 1993 with many new individual and organizational members and it is my expectation that 1994 will see a major increase in participation from all quarters of the globe. Warmest regards for the holiday season, Vinton G. Cerf